Count
Francesco Arese: A Trip to the Prairies

in the Interior of North America, 1837-38

WISCONSIN. Fall 1837. Relationship between Indians and Half-Breeds

The etymology of the names of
rivers, prairies, rocks, and other places in this
country, derives, as one may have noticed, very
often from some circomstance or souvenir
connected with them, which passes from mouth to
mouth and from generation to generation, and thus
acquires a geographical authority. The funniest
derivation I have heard of is that of the name of a
prairie which the hunters along the Mississippi call
the Ferribault (sic) Woman's Prairie. Here in a few
words is the etymology:-Mr. Ferribault's wife was
a half-breed who affected the costume and the
customs of white people and made fun of Indians.
Some young Indians in the neighborhood, vexed at
her jokes, swore to be revenged, and one fine day
they got hold of Mrs. Ferribault and, as the Indians
say, passed her around on the prairie; and the
chronicle has it that 25 young Indians inflicted upon
her the most terrible punishment (from the moral
point of view) that can be inflicted on a woman.
Fortunately Mrs. Ferribault put up with all these
outrages for the love of God and felt only the better
afterwards.

PRAIRIE EXPEDITION DEPARTING FROM ST. LOUIS. Fall 1837. General remarks
about the Indians; Education, Appearance; Marriage. Largely based on Arese’s experiences
with the Sioux and the Menominee.

The training of children among the savages lasts
a very short while. As soon as they are able to
look after their own needs, or at least to stand on
their legs, they have entire freedom and live with
their parents as with strangers, receiving from the
father nothing except lessons in courage, slyness,
and revenge-practical lessons, of course, not
merely theoretic.

The Indians may marry as many wives as they
are able to feed. Usually they buy them from their
parents. The wife has an entirely passive role, she is
almost the slave of her husband. It is she who cooks
the meals, takes care of the babies, the tents, the
horses, and in a word, the whole establishment.
When her husband is away at war or hunting, it is
she who tans the skins and the furs and tailors the
clothes. On the trail it is the wife that carries the
babies, and the baggage, and attends to all the work
connected with camping. The husbands are jealous
or pretend to be jealous and cut off the noses and
the ears, sometimes even kill wives that have failed
to be faithful. The wives' behavior is in general
pretty regular, whereas that of girls is not in the
least so. A girl gives or sells herself to anybody she chooses, and does it almost
coram populo, without her reputation's suffering the
slightest bit. When a stranger arrives in a tribe and
is well received, it never fails that he is given a
woman for the time he is to be there. In any case,
supposing he wants one, he need not lack. "Running the match" is a phrase in use among the
Canadian
hunters: it is one of the better methods for getting
girls, and the pursuit goes like this:

You enter a tent when the fire there is out. You
have been careful to have a torch in your hand, or it
would be better to say, a lighted piece of wood.
You go along past the different girls in bed, and the
one who puts it out, receives you in her arms. That
is how it is sometimes done; but ordinarily you just
go into a tent where you know there is a pretty girl,
you stir up the fire so as to be able to pick her out
among the other people, you bring her a present of
a mirror, some glassware, a knife, or any other little
thing, and your happiness is assured.

In general the savages do not know the charm of
mystery and consider the actual formula with which
one gives proof of lively emotion as an animal
function and nothing more.

As I have said above, when I was travelling with
an Indian family [of Menominee Indians], the husband would prove to his
wife, before me, the lively interest she aroused in
him; and that in a little tent twelve feet square,
while I was tranquilly smoking my pipe, and no
more embarrassed than if it had been the cat.

The women wear their hair smooth, parted on the
forehead and falling over the shoulders. They wear
a little skirt of blanket or leather, which they attach
above the hips with a strap. Their corsage is
formed by the same piece as the skirt and held up
by a pair of small suspenders passing over the
shoulders. Others wear a skirt separate from the
waist, and in that case the skirt is held in the same
way by a belt which is covered by the skirt falling
back over it: as to the waist it is a sort of sleeveless
waistcoat. The skirts come halfway to the knee.
For stockings they wear a mitosse or embroidered
leggings which come to the knee: for shoes,
moccasins. On their backs they wear either a
blanket or a skin, which covers them from head to
foot. When they can have their clothes of blanket,
red is the favorite color. On the trail they carry a
baby, sometimes even two, inside the blanket on
their back, and supported by the top of the head.